US Spacesuits (eBook)

* the most accurate and comprehensive work on U.S. spacesuits ever published.

*A unique insight into the development of US spacesuits through to the present day.

* Presents in context the authors' unique collection of 172 black and white photographs.

* Explains why spacesuits are a last refuge for astronauts for survival.

* Details many technically and historically interesting developments, but which never achieved fruition.

Kenneth Thomas's and Joe McMann's careers mirror the story of US spacesuit development. As a second generation space engineer, Ken Thomas grew up with the U.S. advanced aviation and space programs. Having worked as a task-manger/engineer on the Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU, NASA's current going-out-in-space suit-system) program and as principal investigator on next generational suit efforts, this background grew to in-depth experience. The experience was further supplemented by extensive personal research into spacesuit system developments. The result is a unique set of qualifications in the arena of spacesuit history.

Joe McMann's career has spanned over 40 years in the area of spacecraft environmental control and space suit systems. He joined NASA during Project Mercury, and has participated in every United States manned space endeavor, including the assembly of the International Space Station. He has been a project engineer, Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit life support system manager, vacuum chamber test subject, real-time flight support console engineer, and overall EVA hardware manager in NASA's EVA Project Office. Following his retirement from NASA in 1997, he joined Hamilton Sundstrand as a technical specialist in the area of failure analysis and resolution. He retired from Hamilton-Sundstrand in 2002, and acts as consultant to NASA and the aerospace industry.

The authors, therefore, are unparalleled in their experience of US spacesuit development and have a unique set of photographs that will illustrate the book. This should make an excellent sister book to ABRAMOV/SKOOG: Russian Spacesuits which, since publication in June 2003, has sold 679 US and 209 ROW, total sales to date of 888.

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Ken Thomas and Joe McMann have produced a magni?cent treatise on spacesuits, spacewalking, life support systems and escape systems. US Spacesuits is historical, massively comprehensive, precise, informative, relevant and readable. As an astronaut I spent 30 years in their world and in their suits. My life was in their hands. I trained on the Apollo and Skylab systems; I assisted in the devel- ment of the Skylab extravehicular activity (EVA) procedures and was a capsule communicator (capcom) on six of the Skylab walks. I helped them in the devel- ment and testing of the shuttle suits, escape systems and all the spacewalking equipment. Together with Don Peterson, I was the ?rst astronaut to test the material in space and I was the lead walker in the initial repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. In this book I am able to relive a lot of my 30 years in that world and gain new insights and perspectives on those experiences. This book is an accurate and detailed history. It is a comprehensive chronology but it is also much more. It not only tells and shows what happened but it deals with how and why things happened. It addresses the hardware and processes that came into fruition and, very importantly, also addresses the options that might have occurred, but did not. It deals with history as an evolutionary process and shows the selection and development system at work.